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The Roman Empire was one of the largest and most enduring in world history. In his new book, distinguished historian William V. Harris sets out to explain, within an eclectic theoretical framework, the waxing and eventual waning of Roman imperial power, together with the Roman community's internal power structures (political power, social power, gender power and economic power). Effectively integrating analysis with a compelling narrative, he traces this linkage between the external and the internal through three very long periods, and part of the originality of the book is that it almost uniquely considers both the gradual rise of the Roman Empire and its demise as an empire in the fifth and seventh centuries AD. Professor Harris contends that comparing the Romans of these diverse periods sharply illuminates both the growth and the shrinkage of Roman power as well as the Empire's extraordinary durability.

Explores the history of the relationship between imperial and internal power across the entire history of the Roman Empire

Makes fruitful comparisons between the Romans of widely diverse periods

Integrates analysis with a highly readable narrative accessible to all those interested in the history of empire and power

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Product details

Date Published: August 2016

format: Hardback

isbn: 9781107152717

length: 370pages

dimensions: 235 x 160 x 23 mm

weight: 0.73kg

contains: 44 b/w illus. 7 maps

availability: Available

Table of Contents

Preface List of illustrations List of maps Abbreviations Timeline Part I. The Long-Term Evolution of Roman Power Part II. The Romans against Outsiders, 400 BC to 16 AD:1. Armed force and enduring control under the Middle Republic: an outline 2. Techniques of domination under the Middle Republic, to 241 BC 3. World power, 241 to 146 BC 4. Questions and controversies 5. Almost irresistible 6. Conclusion Part III. The Romans against Each Other, from Republic to Monarchy:7. Inside an aristocratic society 8. The form and nature of the polity in the Middle Republic 9. Late-republican discontents 10. One-man rule and its effects on wider power-relationships 11. Charismatic power, economic power 12. Internal power, external power Part IV. The Romans against Outsiders, 16 to 337 AD:13. Expansion slows and ceases 14. Desires and reasons 15. Emperors and their rivals 16. Military strength and weakness 17. Knowledge and methods 18. Conclusion Part V. The Romans against Each Other: from Empire to Nation?:19. Durability and docility: the historical problem 20. Assimilation and identity 21. The emperor 22. Imperial questions 23. Diocletian and Constantine 24. High and mid-level officials 25. Order and law 26. Lower officials 27. Social and gender power 28. The power of ideas 29. Internal power, external power Part VI. The Romans against Outsiders, 337 to 636 AD:30. The crucial decades 31. Western woes 32. An attempt at explanation 33. Two centuries later 34. The unsustainability of Justinian's empire 35. Conclusion Part VII. The Romans against Each Other in Two Long Crises:36. Sixty crucial years of imperial power 37. Bishops, priests and the state 38. Social disintegration 39. Ideas 40. From Justinian to Heraclius and beyond 41. Internal rivals 42. Internal power, external power Part VIII. Retrospect and Some Reflections References Index.

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Author

W. V. Harris, Columbia University, New YorkWilliam V. Harris is William R. Shepherd Professor of History at Columbia University, New York. The author of War and Imperialism in Republican Rome (1985), Ancient Literacy (1989), Restraining Rage: The Ideology of Anger Control in Classical Antiquity (2002, winner of the Breasted Prize of the American Historical Association), Dreams and Experience in Classical Antiquity (2009) and Rome's Imperial Economy (2011), he has also edited books about ancient money, the ancient Mediterranean, and the spread of Christianity, among other subjects. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, among other honours.

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